U.S. Ryder Cup picks

With U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin set to make his wildcard picks tomorrow there will be much speculation about who will be chosen and who should be chosen. If given the choice, here’s who I would pick.

Tiger Woods. If European captain Colin Montgomerie can leave a top-10 player in Paul Casey off of his team, can Pavin leave the world’s number one—albeit in a severely down year—off of his squad? No, no he cannot. Woods is a lock.

Zach Johnson. The 2007 Masters champ has been steady—with made cuts in 20 of 22 events—but not spectacular—a win at Colonial and a T3 at the PGA Championship and no other top-10s—this season. His record at the Ryder Cup is a pedestrian 1-2-1 and he’s not much better in the President’s Cup at 4-4, having lost his Sunday singles match in each of those three events. Still his accuracy off the tee combined with his solid short game and putting would make him a good compliment to some of the longer hitters on the American team. The fact that he’s won a major and competed in others makes him a good candidate to deal with the pressure of the Ryder Cup. His poor record in the Open Championship—one T20 and nothing else inside the top 45—could play against him.

Stewart Cink. With the lack of veteran leadership on the team (four of the eight automatic spots are rookies) the U.S. needs a strong older presence and Cink will help to fill that void. He has an okay record in team competitions—4-4-1, 1-3 singles in Ryder Cup and 9-7-2, 3-1 singles in President’s Cup—a strong match play record—21-11 in the WGC Accenture Match Play with one runner up and one third place finish—and, of course, he seems to play well in Britain, having won the Open Championship last year. He has not won this year and he has only three top-10s, but of all the veteran players out there that can combine experience with quality play this season, he’s the best choice.

Anthony Kim. Yes, he had major surgery that kept him out of action for most of the summer. And yes, he hasn’t made a cut since returning to action at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational last month. But simply put, Anthony Kim is made for the risk/reward nature of match play golf. He went 2-1-1 with a Sunday singles victory in the Ryder Cup at Valhalla two years ago and was 3-1 with a singles victory at the President’s Cup last year. He lost to Ross Fisher in the final of the Volvo World Match Play last fall and he is a certifiable birdie machine—as evidenced by his back nine charge on Sunday at Augusta earlier this year. With just under a month until play kicks off in Wales, he has more than enough time to find his game.

Others in the mix: Rickie Fowler. JB Holmes. Lucas Glover.